There are plenty of gorgeous ties out there. You just have to know where to look. While looking, be creative – even daring, to avoid that stodgy look. There’s nothing worse than a necktie that just kind of hangs around your neck and looks, well, dull. That’s what the folks at Lands’ End say, which is why they add a little extra silk to their striped ties to give them “steeper, highlight-catching ribs. Because the steeper ribs also create shadows in the valleys between them, the stripes even look a bit three-dimensional,” according to the “Late June 1990″ catalog sent out by the Dodgeville, Wisc., direct merchandising house.
But Don Alan Work, who owns a menswear shop in downtown Fort Walton Beach, would disagree that any striped tie has any saving grace.
“If they want a striped or solid tie, they don’t come here. I don’t buy those. I buy fashion,” he said.
To make his point, he offers a basket of sale-priced striped ties that he said were left over from the previous owners.
Work’s choices are more uptown, with patterns that look bold at first glance, but take on a subtlety and project a different image when used to accessorize a plain navy blazer or dark business suit.
Tie colors cover the spectrum, but few in his store are the extreme brights. The bright-yet-pale yellow power dressing tie is passe, he said. His silks come in deep, rich hues, sparked with creams and whites which complement the still most popular white shirt.
Up in Wisconsin, the Lands’ End shipping department continues to mail out thousands of striped ties with such names as random width, silk English regimental, silk repp college, railroad, silk guardsman, silk Kennedy, two bar, mini bar, and the brand new multi repp bow tie.
To clear up any confusion about terminology, they explain that their striped ties are made in fabric of two weaves.
Repp refers to a ribbed fabric with the ribs running diagonally, opposite the stripe.
Twill is also a ribbed fabric, but with the ribs running vertically or horizontally.
Lands’ End hand-sews its ties, all of which sell for under $40. Hand-sewing means durability – ties that hold up. Less than 10 percent of all ties on the market today are hand sewn, they say.
Patterned ties are hand printed in Como, Italy, on raw Chinese silk, which is woven into a neutral gray fabric that absorbs the rich colors well.
Oval medallion, silk deco paisley, silk foulard, Persian, and silk pindot are a few of the patterns made by this process.
